Mentor Bios

Alper Rozanes

Alper has been a member of Toastmasters since 2009 and is a past president of the club. Alper loves getting up on the stage now, but if you asked anyone he grew up with, he used to be quite the wallflower.

Back in those days, he would have rather died than stood in front of people and spoke, but now once he gets up on the stage and starts talking, we can barely get him to stop.

Arlene is an English teacher who lives in Istanbul. She joined Toastmasters in March 2013 after briefly hearing about Toastmasters when she was teaching English in South Korea. Arlene takes every opportunity she can to travel or to experience new things here in her adopted city. Among other things, she enjoys writing and doing crosswords. She does not enjoy cold weather, or waiting in queues, but luckily writing and doing crosswords help to endure such things.

Percin joined Toastmasters in October 2014 and has shown a quick progression since. He has given 10 speeches in a bit more than a year after his membership and became the president of Istanbul Toastmasters in less then a year. He, as well as a mentor, considers himself a lifelong student, striving to develop himself at every opportunity.

He works as a trainer on entrepreneurship, intercultural dialogue, generational differences and time management, and dreams to find his own company soon.

For more info, you find him on Linkedin.

Bengü Durgun

Bengü discovered Istanbul Toastmasters in November 2011. Since then she has played many roles in the club and loves going to the meetings.

Bengü believes that if you want to be an impressive public speaker you need to distinguish yourself first. Distinguishing yourself starts with being aware of yourself, and being aware of yourself is a fascinating journey of personal insight. This journey allows you to learn from everybody you meet, every time, every day. And the journey is so much more fun if you spend part of it with a colorful and amusing community that is willing to help you to invest in yourself.

David’s speeches are some of the most eagerly-anticipated in the club, and he is known for integrating great content with expressive body language and vocal variety, and perhaps most for his relaxed presence on the stage.

The club’s founding president, Matt led the very first meeting on Wednesday, 14 March, 2007, at the offices of the Turkish-Korean Association in Elmadağ. He is a member of the club mainly because he really enjoys the people in the club, and considers them one of the best groups of people he has ever had the honor to spend time with.

Matt prefers to work with people face-to-face, and would rather spend 10 hours with one mentee than one hour with 10 mentees.

Tuba is obsessed with content-building and the telling of stories. If you want a mentor who will look first at the content of your speeches, and help you develop stories for them, you need to talk to Tuba.

Tuba joined Toastmasters in early 2012 by chance (no, she did not just stumble at random into a meeting). She is the club’s most dependable attendee, having been to every meeting since she joined. In fact, some of us are afraid that if she didn’t come, the world might end. Tuba currently serves as the club’s Vice President of Membership.